Having had the guts to appoint a promising young manager with no Premier League track record but not the balls to stand by him when things got tough, Blackburn were never going to make a sexy appointment today. And though it would surely have been fascinating for outsiders to find out whether, say, Temuri Ketsbaia could repeat his Famagusta miracle at Ewood Park, we can hardly criticise the wobbling club for leaning on an experienced shoulder this time. Joe Kinnear and Harry Redknapp have already shown enough this season to suggest that old campaigners can be relied upon at least to instil a bit of order.

Or can they? When Sam Allardyce was sacked from Newcastle he left behind a disjointed, exsanguine corpse that required resurrection by a messiah. It may not have escaped Ince's attention that one of the results which precipitated Allardyce's dismissal was a sorry defeat at Wigan; two humiliations at the hands of Derby County, the worst team ever to besmirch the Premier League, did not help. Also like Ince, Allardyce was extracted from a club whose players were rumoured to be uninspired by his man-management.

At Blackburn, however, Allardyce's task will not be complicated by the expectations that wore him down at Newcastle, where the new owner, as well as many old fans and players, aspired not merely to gate-crashing the elite but to doing so with a certain style. Blackburn currently demand nothing more than survival, and Allardyce proved at Bolton he can secure that. As he did at Bolton, and as Mark Hughes did before him at Blackburn, Allardyce will strive to get Blackburn back to basics before trying to add frills.

The worry for Blackburn fans must be that Allardyce's failure at Newcastle may not be dismissed as the consequence of some cultural incompatibility; after all, the midfield was a muddle and despite symbolically ditching Titus Bramble on his first day in charge, Allardyce failed to cure the club's notoriously dodgy defence, Claudio Cacapa proving to be bad medicine. Perhaps the Blackburn board takes the view that, given time and a more benevolent casualty list, Allardyce may have turned things around at Newcastle. Perhaps they would have said the same of Ince if the Guv'nor could have pointed to a decade of achievement at Bolton.

Ultimately, of course, the success of any manager is largely dependent on the resources at his disposal. Ince was not exactly sitting on a gold mine and Allardyce has certainly not inherited a squad capable of winning the silverware he said he was seeking when he last left Lancashire nearly two years ago. No team used fewer players than Blackburn last season and their squad has been weakened since then while others have reinforced. Keeping hold of, or effectively and quickly replacing, Roque Santa Cruz will be crucial. Allardyce will also have to replace David Bentley, which Ince was unable to do.

Bentley may have been topsy-turvy for Spurs so far this season but Blackburn's predicament suggests he was worth more to them than the £15m they pocketed for his transfer. He was the chief conduit of the club's attacks, Opta stats showing that he delivered more crosses last season than any player in the Premier League (and three times more than Morten Gamst Pedersen on the opposite wing). What's more, those crosses were accurate — only Chelsea had a better cross completion rate than Blackburn. This season Blackburn have continued to swing in more crosses than most, but in terms of completion they have fallen not only behind Chelsea but also the likes of Manchester City and Wigan.

If the loss of Bentley seems to be the principal reason why Blackburn have scored fewer goals than they had by this time last season, the absence of another player helps explain why they have conceded far more.

No worthy heir has been found for Robbie Savage. Steven Reid was the natural candidate, even if he also seemed best suited to fill Bentley's boots on the right, but his long-term injury put an end to that. Keith Andrews, Aaron Mokoena, Johann Vogel and even Brett Emerton have all failed consistently to convince there.

Vince Grella may turn out to be the solution but given the Australian's recent injuries and lack of familiarity with the Premier League, Allardyce may have to wade wisely into the transfer market. Repeating the Ivan Campo or Fernando Hierro coups would be good, reliving his Alan Smith misadventure less so.